Slow but steady polling is underway in third phase of Uttar Pradesh election. till 1 pm total 53% voting is recorded.

As of 5 p.m., 63 per cent voting was reported in UP. As on 3 pm 58 per cent voting was reported in Sitapur,54 per cent from Kanpur city, 54.33 per cent from Kannauj, 51.72 per cent in Auraiyya, 54 per cent in Kanpur rural and 50 per cent in Unnao districts.

Lucknow district continued to lag behind in voting trend as only 35 per cent balloting was recorded.

The EC officials said it was probably because the polling coincided with a Sunday, but the expressed hope that voting will pick up by late afternoon and better the past percentage of 59 per cent.

VVIP voting is also underway as Lucknow, Kanpur and Saifai is polling today. BSP chief Mayawati cast her vote in Lucknow poll booth no.25. She claimed "like in the first two phases, in the third phase also BSP will be no.1 and will form the Government with a majority. "BSP kam se kam 300 ke kareeb seats jeetne ja rahi hai"

Similarly Home Minister Rajnath Singh after casting his vote in Lucknow told media that "not only clear majority, BJP is winning by absolute majority in Uttar Pradesh"

CM Akhilesh Yadav casts his vote in Saifai. He said "We were ahead in first 2 phases and I am confident that we will be ahead in 3rd phase also. Once again Samajwadi Party will be forming the Govt,in alliance with Congress".

In Lucknow BJP Spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi cast his vote in a polling booth in Sherwood Academy. Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh T Venkatesh cast his vote in Lucknow. Rita Bahuguna Joshi, BJP after casting her vote claimed she is winning, She said "in Lucknow Mulayam ji's emotional appeal points to the fact that Aparna Yadav is losing". Rita Bahuguna Joshi is contesting against Samajwadi Party's Aparna Yadav from Lucknow Cantt constituency.

Ramgopal Yadav after casting vote in Saifai said "there is no infighting at all as far as voting is concerned, we are winning 300+ seats"

In this phase 69 seats of 12 districts is voting. Farrukhabad,Hardoi,Kannauj,Mainpuri,Etawah, Auraiya,Kanpur Dehat,Kanpur Nagar,Unnao,Lucknow,Barabanki and Sitapur. the third phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections began on Sunday amid tight security.

Heavy security deployment has been made across the 12 districts where polling began. Sensitive polling stations marked by the Election Commission (EC) are being monitored online, an official said.

Poll panel officials said they hope that more and more people will come out to vote this time and that the previous turnout of 59.96 per cent in this region in 2012 will be bettered by the end of the day.

In all, there are 826 candidates in fray whose fate would be decided by 2.41 crore voters.

In this round, all eyes are on people from the Yadav clan, like Shivpal Singh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav's daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav's cousin Anurag Yadav. The fate of BJP's Rita Bahuguna Joshi will also be decided in this round.